FG to investigate export of low quality yams to US

The Federal Executive Council has resolved to investigate a company that exported a consignment of yams found to be of poor quality to the United States.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“One of the developments we were mandated to brief you on is about the consignment of yams which was exported from here to the United States and which according to the reports we have today, was found to be of poor quality.

“The ministry will investigate because the ministry is not an exporter. The exporters are private people.

“We will investigate the company that exported it and ask our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here,” he said.

Ogbeh also said the government was concerned about the high cost of rice which he described as the most consumed commodity in Nigeria.

He said rice growers and millers have been meeting in the last two days and have agreed to the plans government has been pursuing to arrive at a certain price.

“That means that in the next one month, the price of rice will become reasonable and the cost of rice would have reduced substantially,” the minister added.